10 Games That Actually NEED A Sequel

As just about every gamer has noticed, the gaming market has been flooded with sequel upon sequel (Tony Hawk, anyone?) — many of which aren’t a great improvement over the last increment. You can’t blame the publishers too much as they wouldn’t be putting them out if gamers weren’t buying them in droves.

But wouldn’t it be nice if publishers would release sequels of games that have had one lone installment, but are both treasured by fans and could greatly utilize newer hardware? I’ve taken joy in creating a list of ten games that I believe could greatly benefit from an upgraded sequel. (Also see my list of Franchises That Actually NEED A Resurection)

Nights Into Dreams – Saturn
This title is an easy #1 pick for me. I cannot understand why a sequel was never produced for this high-flying platformer. It was one of the Saturn’s most successful titles (especially considering it was not a launch title) and popularized the “3D Controller“. It was developed by Sonic Team was a good enough game for fans to forgive Sega for not having a exclusive Sonic game on the Saturn. The hype surrounding a sequel would be huge as the many fans of the Sega classic have been waiting for such a game for about a decade.

Nights into Dreams had “long-term franchise” written all over it and fans have been begging for a sequel ever since. In the 32-bit era, Nights was a breathtaking game that had a 3D look and feel while remaining in a primarily 2D gameplay world.

While the Sonic titles never seemed the same after transitioning into 3D environments, Nights into Dreams would be not only fitting, but absolutely beautiful running on current or next-generation hardware. Nights took place in an imaginative world and today’s graphics processors could push those environments to their limits.

Beyond Good and Evil – PS2, Gamecube, XBox, PC
Possibly one the best games of 2004, Beyond Good and Evil featured a magical combination of action, animation, and storytelling that won it high regard among critics. The game represented high quality and production values when most other games on the market were either re-hashes of other successful games or just plain awful.

With all the unimaginitive plots in games today, a series like BG&E deserves to live on. Of course, it didn’t sell well in its first iteration, but much of the buzz about the game happened just a bit after stores started taking it off their shelves. Now that there is a healthier fan-base, a sequel might just flourish.

Guardian Heroes – Saturn
Developed by fan-favorite, Treasure, Guardian Heroes was late-blooming Saturn title that many people still haven’t discovered. Guardian Heroes is a beatemup with strong RPG elements. The game combined great 2D animation, a unique control scheme, and killer gameplay with the ability to level up and focus the skills that you choose.

While Guardian Heroes is one of my all-time favorite games, one of my biggest complaints is its jaggy graphics. While it was slick in its day with it’s scaling and zooming sprites, it shows its age a bit now. This could easily be remedied on today’s consoles with a Guilty Gear-like engine. (FYI: There was a Guardian Heroes game on the Gameboy Advance, but it was more of a watered-down port than a sequel — Treasure is capable of so much more).Full Review of Guardian Reviews

Kid Icarus – NES
The main character in this beloved NES classic was a small boy with wings named Pit, on a quest to rescue his goddess Palutena and free Angel Land from the grasp of Medusa. The game was based on the Metroid engine and contained both side and vertical scrolling action sequences. However, Metroid received more of a fan base than Kid Icarus and Metroid went on to be one of the most dominant Nintendo franchises while Kid Icarus was left aside.

The game did spawn a Game Boy pseudo-sequel entitled Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, but over the 20 years since the original NES release only the long-forgotten rumors of a Super Famicom/Super NES follow-up and a Revolution and/or DS rumor in 2005 showed any hit of a true follow-up.Full Review of Kid Icarus

Comix Zone – Genesis/Megadrive
This colorful beatemup was released near the end of the life of the Sega Genesis (and came in those cruddy cardboard boxes). Instead of featuring a character that simply walked down a city street and beat people up, Comix Zone had the game’s hero sucked into his own comic book creation and battle the villains within actual panels of comic book pages.

You can leap out of the page and back down into the next panel, perhaps even shortcut to the panels below. Add in the ability to rip loose chunks of the page itself to make deadly paper airplanes, or the power to punch an enemy through the ink boundaries of the panel and you have a fresh twist to the beatemup genre.

Comix Zone looked beautiful on the 16-bit Genesis, so I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be on even the PS2. Of course, this game would need to stay in 2D, but it could borrow heavily from Viewtiful Joe’s pseudo-2D movie world formula.Full Review of Comix Zone

Chrono Trigger – SNES, Playstation
One of the best RPGs in the history of the world deserves a sequel — and I’m not talking about Chrono Cross (what some consider a spinoff at best). There have been numerous homebrew attempts at creating a sequel to Chrono Trigger and they have all been squashed by Square/Enix. (see here and here) While some may think that Chrono Cross is a fine sequel, this should show the developers that there is a large craving for this title.

Chrono Trigger is a top-of-the-line RPG that takes place across the entire fabric of time itself. The player is cast into a beautiful world and makes an attempt at electronic teleportation, which seemingly breaches the fabric of time, throwing a varied cast of beings into a complex effort to repair the threads of causality.

If you take a look at some of the newer PS2 RPGs like Dragon Quest VIII (or the overly-cinematic Final Fantasy series), you can imagine how a game like Chrono Trigger could translate into the next-gen console environment.Full Review of Chrono Trigger

Skies of Arcadia – Dreamcast, Gamecube
While it may not be as good as Chrono Trigger, Skies of Arcadia is an RPG that has an interesting enough combination of a good battle system and unique setting that it deserves to live on. The game takes place in a world where instead of oceans there are seemingly endless stretches of air and sky. All of the continents simply float around, and air ships replace boats.

Vyse and Aika are two members of a noble band of pirates. During the looting and plundering they rescue a mysterious silver-haired girl by the name of Fina. The are then on their way to find the 4 moon crystals in order to prevent the Valuan Empire from obtaining their incredible power.

Skies of Arcadia manages to benefit from how heavily exploration is emphasized. Now that games like the Grand Theft Auto series and Spiderman 2 showed how to do more open-ended exploration, a Skies sequel could execute on those concepts. A sequel for the series was hinted at back in 2004, but we haven’t really heard anything since then.Full Review of Skies of Arcadia

Sonic CD – Sega CD, PC, Gamecube (via Sonic Gems)
As I’ve mentionedtwice in the last week, we need a real console Sonic game in 2D. Sonic CD is still, in my opinion the best Sonic game. Sonic 2 and 3 were incredible as well, but Sonic CD added an extra amount of depth and replayabilty when it added the time-travel feature. Which Sonic CDs time traveling wasn’t very complicated, it could be utilized in a sequel and beefed up a bit.

Sonic CD improved on the formula of the original Genesis/Megadrive Sonic games by adding an amazing collection of soundtracks and sound effects in addition to some extra eye candy. Bringing a 2D sequel to next-gen consoles would escalate that improvement many times over. I think it could be a real revolution if Sega would go through with it. I realize the Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS is one of the best Sonic games yet, but we really need a heavy-duty 2D game on a full console.

I have to admit, however, that the name “Sonic CD 2” sounds really lame. Perhaps “Sonic 2D Blast”, as a tribute to the not-so-fun Genesis/Saturn game Sonic 3D Blast.Full Review of Sonic CD

Grim Fandango – PC
One of the most heralded point-and-click adventures was Tim Schafer’s brilliant “Grim Fandango.” It had a mind-blowingly original premise wrapped in somewhat more traditional graphic-adventure-game trappings. Sales of the original disappointed, so I don’t really see a sequel emerging.

Of course, after his eventual success with Psychonauts, Schaffer might be up to the task of bringing Grim Fandango to a more modern gameplay method and platform.

American McGee’s Alice – PC
This Third Person Shooter was powered by the Quake III engine and was set years after Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Alice features an older, more cynical and macabre incarnation of Alice. The game is written in the spirit of Tim Burton’s gothic works.

Although the graphics aren’t spectacular, many of the levels are very clever and creative in design. Often, these designs inspire a world of chaos and wonder. There is even a level design that is similar to those hallways/house of mirrors found in circus attractions. The sound and music also adds much to the atmosphere.

While some may not have enjoyed the original Alice because of its shortcomings, that doesn’t mean that a new sequel couldn’t resolve those issues. Much like Nights in to Dreams, Alice would push the envelope of this imaginative world, if a sequel was made on cutting-edge hardware. I would also enjoy seeing a console version since I’m not a big PC gamer.Full Review of Alice

89 Comments

Great list. I’ve played and absolutely love all of them except for Alice and Sonic CD.

If a Grim Fandango sequel ever does arrive, I hope they could craft the puzzle solving in more of a “funnel” fassion. Like when you are completely stuck, then talking to random people a few times each might give you some solid hints. That game had me reading a FAQ about every 5 minutes. It was very frustrating, but I still loved it.

Oh, and I’m currently playing through Skies of Arcadia for the 4th time. Originally I beat the buggy pirated version on Dreamcast, then I bought it on Gamecube and beat it twice. Now I bought it on Dreamcast, since I sold the Cube.

Gamecube got a lot of additional side-quests (Like 30 more discoveries, Paistol’s story, the super hard Wanted List bosses, Air Pirate Vigoro, a new ultimate weapon for Vyse, and raising the Hamochao thing), but Dreamcast had VASTLY superior music quality, and Pinta’s Quest.

Me, being an audiophile, would consider both versions to be equally great, if it weren’t for Dreamcast’s insane number of random battles. I can’t find any codes for any cheat devices that will slim down or remove them. It’s painful just to sail sometimes.

Anyways, my point is, I just wish they finished the PC version they had begun work on. It was going to contain all the additions that Gamecube got, and most likely the superior music quality. Plus the high resolution would have really upped the experience. And they could easily have increased the draw distance for most of the areas. I’d settle for the PC port much sooner then a sequel. Grandia 2 got a quality PC port after all.

Don’t forget other Lucasarts great games such as X-Wing and TIE Fighter which I feel they haven’t felt they have been able to replicate.

Since we’re going so much back in the day, it’d be great to see the adventure games return, King’s Quest, Police Quest, Monkey Island and the whole shabang.

Whatever happened to Flight Simulators anyway? Ever since EA shut down their Jane’s line of products, there haven’t been any that have really sparked the genre, aside from that one Sukhoi game that came a few years back.

Absofu**inglutely on all of those. Only one of them I haven’t played, but the rest. ESPECIALLY Nights into Dreams needs a sequel. I have been hoping for a good sequel to it for many years. Let’s hope they do one for the next gen. systems and go all out. I also wanted to see an Altered Beast sequel, but I heard they did it and it never made it to the US and wasnt that great. *sigh

Speaking of Tim Schafer, PsychoNauts brings back that adventure/action game spark with incredibly creative levels and writing. I’m torn between asking for a sequel for that, and waiting to see what new things he could come up with. I’m fully behind Beyond Good & Evil deserving one. I’d buy it!
And sam n max, and a good TIE Fighter one with the whole emperor’s hand thing.

Even if Brood War can be considered a sequel to SC, it was so good that now, almost in 2006, 9 years after its original launch, the game has a solid and evolving fan base. Ghost, for one, isn’t out, and for two, is in no way a sequel. Everyone back in the day played SC at some time or another, so I’m really surprised that such a popular game hasn’t even gotten a real sequel. I remember people telling me SC2 was coming out – half a dozen years ago. There would be a huge market, I’m sure.

As mentioned, older Sierra and Lucasarts games, primarily the Adventure genre that is pretty much dead today. I haven’t seen a truly good Adventure game spring up since the newest Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Those seemed to top the genre at its demise.

What we really need are some more Goblins Quest and Kyrandia games! Remember old Microprose? YEA! Ultimately, these developers would be geniuses to release COMPLETE adventure collections IMO… I own all the originals cuz you can’t find them anymore.

There was going to be a meta-sequel to American McGee’s Alice, called American McGee’s Oz. It was supposed to be about the Land of Oz long before the timeframe of the Frank Baum books, and was a lot darker, and really was going to be an awesome game. They cancelled it in early 2004. Supposedly no one would take a chance on it because it wasn’t “an established franchise”. Apparently American McGee is trying to get a movie made of it now, because once there’s a movie, the game is a shoe-in. IGN has more info at http://pc.ign.com/objects/641/641279.html

Panzer General
Shining Force (maybe a collectors edition, I+II+IIIa-c in english, would do everything for this)
Unreal Tournament (not this shitty 2kX grafic demos, I mean a sequel to the 99 game which captures its spirit)
Panzer Dragoon Saga (enough said)

A fine list, but lacking one critical title that understandably few know about:

Anachronox. The “Firefly” of PC games, a sci-fi RPG truly epic in scope yet blessed with great characters and writing to rival Monkey Island. It was going to be a trilogy, but Eidos, just like Fox, fired the whole team immediately after the first game was released. Tom Hall is PC gaming’s Joss Whedon.

Find a copy. Brace yourself for pre – Quake III – era poly counts (the game actually uses a crazy-hacked Quake II engine), and give it a little time — If you can look past the retro 3D, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

Well… I think it’s a good list but i have 3 words; Legend of Dragoon. i can’t believe you left out this game, it was the ultimate ps1 rpg (forgive me ff7). Oh well, i guess we’re all intitled to our opinion… crappy democracy!

Starcraft needs a god damn real sequel i don’t count Broodwars as a real one it more of an expansion, Blizzard consentrates too hard on Warcraft which in my eyes is weaker than Starcraft, Give me Starcraft i demand it. (Ghost isn’t a sequel either because it’s god damn FPS not a stragtey). Is Freedom Fighter or The Thing ever going to a sequel too because i loved those games, Though Freedom fighters was far too short.

I want Alpha Centauri 2, every one gets all excited about Civ 4, but I still think the original Alpha Centauri was more fun. I would love to have a new AC game with updated visuals, a new tech tree, and more factions, it would be brilliant

How about Ooga Booga? It came out at the end of the Dreamcast life cycle but it was absolutely awesome. I would love to see a sequel that expanded on the boar polo segment.

Legend of Zelda: Four Swords for gamecube needs a proper sequel as well. The original’s reliance on GBA connectivity totally sucked, but the game was great and needs to be revisited. For that matter, the GBA Four Swords could use a proper DS sequel with internet gameplay.

Gimme a new River City Ransom game, only 3-D and with the virtual sandbox thing going on. Add to this a generous amount of usable objects (vaulting off lampposts into dropkicks, throwing baddies through store windows, the ol’ garbage-can-over-the-head). And even though it’s not fashionable, the game would need cel-shaded graphics to be true to the Kunio levity.

I would love to see a sequal to Master of Magic. I hated Master of Orion 3, so I would hope someone else does Master of Magic and does it right. I wouldn’t mind it being done using the Civ IV engine or even something better than the Civ IV engine. 🙂

Cool list. Would be cooler if you have spelled Schafer’s name correctly, though. And have done just a tennsy bit research about Sam & Max “sequal” (it’s been taken over by another company and is a completely different project than the thing LucasArts cancelled two years ago) before mentioning it.

For those who are talking about Starcraft and Brood War, I am looking at my Brood War box right now and it says, in larger letters than Brood War, “Expansion Set”. Therefore, it is not a sequel and should not be counted.

If you didn’t think CC was a sequel to Chrono Trigger then you didn’t get the best ending.

CT ends in such a way that there really can’t be a sequel (or at least there can’t be a sequel on anywhere near the same scale as the original story)… what CC does is take the single loose end left by the final ending of CT and creates a story out of it… answering the final question left by CT.

Get the best ending and tell me it’s a “spin off.” It seems that way for 75% of the game, but the best part was getting to the point where it all comes together.

Day of the Tentacle – It’s already a sequel to Maniac Mansion. Play it if you haven’t already – it’s fully included inside DotT on a computer in Green Tentacle’s room.

Shadowrun – There’s a lot more to Shadowrun than the SNES/Genesis game. Look up the pen-and-paper version.

Chrono Trigger – I second the comment about the true ending. If you got the good ending, then it all makes sense. I applaud Square’s bravery in really taking a series that everyone loved and making it grow up. I think that’s why people didn’t care for it so much.

Ultima Underworld – Has a sequel, cleverly named “Ultima Underworld II”. For a good RPG in the same style and developed by much of the same people but much newer, see Arx Fatalis.

Legend Of Dragoon – was probably left out because not that many people really liked it. Sorry.

System Shock – also has a sequel, this time with a control scheme that doesn’t make your brain puke. It’s really good and builds on the story laid down in the first game.

“Metal Arms : Glitch in the System” needs to get a sequel in the worst way. Only this time, pump it up with Xbox Live, system link, map editor, etc… that game rocked and it’s too bad Sierra dropped it.

A game that hasn’t been mentioned that had a fake sequel was Actraiser (SNES). Actraiser 2 only had the action gameplay and not the building simulation. The original combined the two extremely well, with an amazing soundtrack to boot.

I really can’t agree with anyone that would say a sequel needs a sequel. It *is* one. Before we worry about this game 5, or that one 6, let’s get some worthy *2s* That’s what this whole article was about, no?

Chrono Trigger: yes. Chrono Cross had me excited and disappointed that I didn’t have a playstation at the time, but I’ve given it a shot, and it’s nothing special. Alternate universe, blah blah blah…It expands too much that it barely relates to the original in terms of subtlety ( you actually square off with a boss called FATE? Now I just need to find the Ultimate weapon “Theme Hammer”)

As for someone metioning Solar Jetman:

Actually, that was made by the company we now know as Rare. Go pick up an N64 and a copy of Jet Force Gemini. The totally renamed “Solar Jetman 2.” I read a comment from them once that they had wanted to call the game “Solar Jetman 2” but the title never stuck. It’s probably a little distant from the origianl for that. And now what was I criticizing Chrono Cross for?

missing on the list: XIII. it only tells half of the (excellent) story. i think it even says “to be continued” at the end, but anyway this point is made clear. however: not enough sales. it’s really a pity, the game is AAA. beautiful visuals, good b.g. music, interesting story.

Vagrant Story really needs a sequel. That game has a great story and I love the gameplay mechanics. Plus, the way it “ends” screams a sequel that was supposed to be made (or that at least was thought). I guess short sales must have cut that idea out.

Speaking of short sales, BG&E was supose to be a trilogy, but due to something that I dont remember, the game ended-up being released the way it is now, for our disappointment…

Would be cool a rock ‘n’ roll racing revamp, w/ better graphics, bigger and more worlds, and an awful lot of music (heh, as a matter of fact, I recorded the songs of the game in a tape, and I still have it until today)!

And wow, like the poster above me, UNDYING! I love horror endings, and this one scared a lot of me. The end is crap, though… that’s it needs a sequel!

Both Chakran and Legend of Dragoon had planned sequels, but later scrapped due to some unknown reasons to me. In fact, there is a game, which I dont remember the name, whose the character design was the same as Chakran, which included a character (or a draw in the wall, I dont remember) which resemble a lot Chakran, hehe.

Oh well, seeing all those games made me nostalgic… and wishing for a saturn/dreamcast/game cube.

Chrono Trigger was actually made a sequel that explained the nexus between Trigger and Cross. It was a conversational game very likely to Tokimeki games (i mean in game mechanics).
It was made to SNES, and its name is Radical Dreamers. It has also a project in translation…Im not sure of their progress but i think its very advanced.

AND ALL OF YOU FORGOT ONE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER MADE FOR PC:
————–OUTCAST————-

Beautiful universe, gameplaying, music, and story. Well designed and developed characters.
This game really needs a second partt, but is gonna not to be made since the company (Appeal) got bankrupt, and the open outcast project goes very slowly…

A sequel deserves a sequel if it brings something original to the field. In that aspect Star Control II needs a “true” sequel. Jaws 3 treatment for that abortion of a 3rd game. Write it out. Chakan 2 was scrapped and the graphics and concepts were supposedly put into Blood Omen 2.
I play the pen and paper Shadowrun and would love to see a true followup to the Genesis version. Snes version was OK, and the new project out of Microsoft is not true to Shadowrun in any form.

Chakan
Shadowrun
Starflight2
Undying
Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi
Star Control 2
System Shock 2
Almost any of the old adventure game franchises.

Personally, I have to agree with Yuji Naka. As awesome as it would be to see NiGHTS returning on a next-gen console, I just can’t see it being the same quality, or having the same feel of epic-ness as the Saturn version. =P

Also, I really don’t think STs recent works have been quite up to scratch will each series’ predecessor. I don’t think PSU was as good as PSO, I haven’t been enjoying Sonic anywhere near as I did during the Nintendo vs. Sega wars, and I can’t see why they won’t just leave a great franchise alone. But that’s just my opinion.

NiGHTS has actually been hailed as the greatest game there is by many fans, some also describe as ‘near perfection’, and from researching the topic on various sites about how much the game is actually worshipped (I had no idea, it’s almost like a cult), I can see why Yuji Naka would want to leave it be. In my eyes, those people are obviously the ones that REALLY gained something from the game.

Too late now though, it’s no longer a speculation. Somewhere along the line, someone desperately wanted to make a profit, that’s my guess.

Ah well, I guess I can only enjoy it if it’s good. If I’m wrong about my speculation, feel free to tear my words apart. XD

I whole-heartedly agree on the Sonic CD thing. We really do need a console sequel to that game… and I don’t just mean a “sequel” in the sense that “Sonic Rush” is a sequel. It needs to be a spiritual sequel, one that can recapture the look-and-feel, brilliant animation, and memorable soundtrack of Sonic CD, as well as the gameplay, on a console once again.

I agree with RClay about Anachronox (although I’m not sure about the trilogy part – I thought they finished _half_ of the game). It has many flaws but it does deserve a sequel for sure (and maybe a remake as well while we’re at it).
But there are more “series” with similarly sad fates, for example XIII (already mentioned by Anonymous; originally planned as duology; one of the finer FPS games out there) or Advent Rising (originally planned as trilogy; I haven’t played it yet).
I’d also like to see some extended incarnations of mechanics seen in indie games Pogo Sticker and Duel 6. And a prequel or sequel to Cave Story would rock of course.
I really like “party games” and the furthest the SHS multiplayer has made it seem to be the action racing games for me. Unfortunately, they are all (Mashed, Micro Machines, Stunt GP) more or less flawed, so I’d welcome a polished sequel to any of these.
And probably my most secret wish in this area which is never going to happen is a true sequel to Deus Ex.

But nothing from video games really compares to my lust for a continuation of Red Dwarf! Ahh…

I both agree and disagree with your chrono statement. I believe Cross to be a very important part to the Chrono Storyline while it answers so many questions from the first game. It is a sequal, new characters, but equally important. However, I do agree that there needs to be a third game (not including Radical Dreamers. That is a true spin-off), but I wish the game would have come out back in 2000 or so. Nowadays if it is released I know they’ll tag on the one thing that ruins an RPG. Voice acting, bleh. Anyway,s answer all of our questions about magus with Chrono Break. Please SquareEnix!

you know what pisses me off?its that Quest 64 is not on this list!!!it was a good game that shur as hell deserved a follow up 10 times more than all 9 gay games on this list,why 9 because comix zone was an alright game in small doses…but for real quest 64 needs a sequel more than any other game in this world!!!